Crossword Genius

One's love dead with spouse starting quarantines? (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

isolates

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'quarantines?' is the definition.
(quarantine is a type of isolation)

'one's love dead with spouse starting' is the wordplay.
'one' becomes 'I' (Roman numeral).
'love dead with' becomes 'lates' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'spouse' becomes 'SO' (abbreviation for significant other).
'starting' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'lates' after 'so' is 'solates'.
'i'+'solates'='ISOLATES'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for isolates that I've seen before include "Keeps apart from others" , "Oils seat (anag.)" , "Places apart or alone" , "Sets apart from others" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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